Episode 82: Allan MacCurrach
Golf course builder Allan MacCurrach began working on crews for Pete Dye in the late 1970s and opened his own golf course contracting company in 1987. He’s been involved in building or remodeling over 20 courses for Dye, who passed away in early 2020, as well as architects like Tom Fazio, Bobby Weed and Rees Jones. MacCurrach is also responsible for constructing–and designing, through interpretation of the numerous conversations and planning sessions he had with Dye —The Dye Course at White Oak, Golf Digest’s Best New Private Course of 2022. White Oak, located near Jacksonville on the Florida/Georgia border, is extremely private and is played only occasionally by its billionaire owner, his few guests and select Golf Digest panelists.
MacCurrach joins the Feed the Ball podcast to talk about his involvement in the White Oak project, creating something distinctive on a non-distinctive site, the opportunity and challenge of attempting to carry out Dye’s design directives after Dye could no longer participate in the construction, the evolution of Dye’s green contours as a reaction to higher green speeds, how the golf course building business has changed to a renovation business and the artistic and engineering genius of the original TPC Sawgrass design.
Photos: Cover page–The 16th hole at The Dye Course at White Oak (Brian Oar); Above–White Oak’s par 3 17th (Brian Oar).
See more White Oak photos and flyovers here.
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